Out N Battle for

Scan page 9

Second edition of the opposition documents presented inside the WRP by the present leadership of the Workers Socialist League Price £2.50 plus 20p postage and package from Workers Socialist League, 31 Dartmouth Park Hil With a new introduction London NW5 1HR OW! something a little more contemporary than schizophrenia: i.e. quadrophenia.

As a plot this would have had some saving grace if the pressures which push Jimmy out into the quadrophenic cold had been sketched in more fully.

But they aren't. Even on the level of surface detail the film has many period inaccuracies.

The type of NF graffitti seen in the film just wasn't around in the early '60s; nor was the 70s design of Manchester United football scarf; nor even Brighton marina!

Symptomatic

These would be minor quibbles if they weren't symptomatic of the greater social inaccuracies in the film.

I don't necessarily expect to see the skull-cracking adventures of the SPG in the popular cinema, but the police in QUADROPHENIA are a joke.

They apperar not to mind as flash mohair-suited mods fight back while being arrested.

These riot scenes are straight out of 'Dixon of Dock Green'.

The sequenc :e in the court-which is mr leant t o be funny-can't even claim that he turns his back on is such a caricature anyway, bathos is the dominant mood.

Increasing the bathos to the point of ridiculousness is Phil Daniels, the actor playing Jimmy: he has a repertoire of expressions which stretch all the way from a grin (he's so happy!) to a grimace (so sad!).

Caricature

Who gives a toss when, in a final welter of self-pity, he tops himself-to the sound of the Who at their most pompous and inflated ('Love, Reign Oe'r Me')? Can this be the same band. who've occasionally produced such powerful, direct rock?

The film's tendency toward caricature means that it doesn't say much about the mod era itself.

QUADROPHENIA is mainly interested in youth subculture as a generational phenomenon, ie parents v children.

Although an important aspect of subcultures is their conflict with the nuclear family, working class youth do come up against other capitalist institutions like the law and the workplace.

I've already mentioned QUADROPHENIA'S enfeebled view of the role of the police and the courts, but it must be admitted that the opts for petit-bourgeois domesticity and the love of a 'good woman' It goes without saying that QUADROPHENIA has no understanding of subcultures in relation to the leisure industry.

When a subculture first emerges, whether ted, mod or punk, it challenges the capitalist institutions I've already mentioned Of course, this challenge comes of an anti-authoritarian individualistic stance, a pose without political direction.

But it's a challenge nevertheless and, however superficial and fleeting, does bring the press and media out in a lather of moral panic.

Bourgeois ideologues though soon compose themselves, and one reason for this is the rapidity at which subcultures are incorporated and made to fit the acceptable face of mass culture.

Commodity

The fetishising of certain styles of clothing and music which is initially the sport of rebellious, narcissistic minority, is made safe by being transformed into a mass commodity: rebellion can be fun, fashionable and for everyone.

The national press about post-war working class life.

In fact, at times QUADROPHENIA'S escapist caricatures put it closer to a Carry On film than to these earlier attempts at British realism.

One thing the which reviewers have right been about that QUADROPHENIA will be a financial success and a shot in the arm for that ailing body the British film industry.

Whether it will provide a similar shot for the current mod revival remains to be seen.

But who cares about that? Subcultures repeat themselves: the first time as rebellion-without-a-cause, the second time as farce. Anyone for CARRY ON SPEEDING?

Monthly paper of thi locialist Youth Leagu Price 15p including postage from SYL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 IHR

Scan page 10

DOSTRIAL 5e.